A vivid and gripping historical thriller set in Elizabethan England introducing Giordano Bruno, philosopher, scientist and spy for all fans of C. J. Sansom and The Name of the Rose. In Elizabeth's England, true faith can mean bloody murder... OXFORD, 1583. A PLACE OF LEARNING. AND MURDEROUS SCHEMES. England is rife with plots to assassinate Queen Elizabeth and return the country to the Catholic faith. Defending the realm through his network of agents, the Queen's spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham works tirelessly to hunt down all traitors. His latest recruit is Giordano Bruno, a radical thinker fleeing the Inquisition, who is sent undercover to Oxford to expose a Catholic conspiracy. But he has his own secret mission at the University - one that must remain hidden at all costs. When a series of hideous murders ruptures close-knit college life, Bruno is compelled to investigate. And what he finds makes it brutally clear that the Tudor throne itself is at stake...